As discussed in more detail in the background of the invention portion of my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,329,749 and 4,435,865, beekeeping has been intensively practiced for several hundred years but with relatively little change in hive apparatus since the invention of the wax foundation and the modern hive in the 1850's.
While most honey is separated from the comb in which it is formed in the hive before marketing, many people regard comb honey as a delicacy.
Prior to the time of my inventions resulting in the above-mentioned patents, the making of comb honey required considerable care, attention and inconvenience in provision and manipulation of the sections in which comb is to be formed by the bees and further involved an inconvenient and messy situation in the serving of comb honey at the table. For example, prior to that time, it was common to provide the foundation (upon which bees build comb) in the middle of a section. This was based on an assumption that the bees would build comb only as they do in nature, i.e. bilaterally. I found that bees could be made to build comb consistently, without the appearance of burr comb in one direction only (unilaterally) to substantial depths with my prior inventive apparatus disclosed in the above-mentioned patent and application. Such a relatively deep section, with comb honey extending only in one direction from the foundation (which may be termed a "half comb" section), could be taken from hive to table and served much more neatly since all of the comb honey is accessible from the open top of the section and the bottom of the section is closed by the foundation wall.
By way of further improvement, my above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,865 disclosed a further improvement in the form of a cover (1) implaceable on a section in such a way as to provide an opening into the section for bees when in the hive and (2) reinstallable at right angles to its hive position to close the section for marketing. Thus, a plurality of such covered sections, with the covers positioned for allowing bee entry, could be stacked in a horizontal column, with several such columns located side-by-side in the super, although this required a super provided with members extending beneath each column of covered sections to support same.
The above-mentioned apparatus, described in substantially more detail in my above-mentioned patent and application, has worked well. However, I have continued research and efforts to improve the manner in which comb honey is manufactured and marketed.
In the course of my research, I noted an effect shown in FIGS. 1 and 1A of this application. Prior sections have normally been constructed of a thin rigid opaque sheet material, commonly thin wood plank. FIGS. 1 and 1A show such a prior section 10 which has been taken from a hive after bees have completed their efforts in building wax comb 12 therein and depositing honey 14 within such comb. It is intended that bees build and fill comb up from foundation surface on the section bottom wall 18 and laterally to the section sidewalls 17. However, I found that bees will tend to build and fill to the full allocated space those comb cells in the central portion of such section 10, but will undesirably tend to leave a border of unfilled or substantially unfilled comb cells, typically of only partial wall height, adjacent the sidewalls 17. Since bees are not machines, in some sections 10 some perimetral comb cells may be partially filled with honey and, particularly in one or more corners, the cell structure several cells deep may be unfilled or only partially filled with honey. This has no disadvantageous effect on the taste of the honey or the capability of serving it directly from the section 10. However, it may have a disadvantageous psychological effect on persons accustomed to purchasing machine-filled containers of food products such as margarine, jam or jelly, peanut butter, etc. which are customarily filled to full width at uniform depth.
My research has led me to the discovery of a new principle of bee behavior; I have found evidence that the low levels of infiltrated light in a hive, or an unidentified source of visual stimulation, enable bees to take cues (hereafter termed visual cues) for comb construction from comb structure and/or bee activity on the opposite side of transparent walls or from their own reflection.
Accordingly, the objects and purposes of this invention include provision of:
Apparatus for production of comb honey which overcomes certain problems caused by the above-mentioned new principle of bee behavior while simultaneously exploiting this principle of bee behavior to achieve certain advantageous results and also correcting problems associated with previously used opaque structures (including the problem discussed immediately above).
Apparatus as aforesaid for inducing bees to build and fill comb to a uniform depth across the full width and length of a cassette, while discouraging building of burr comb at unwanted locations, such as the inside of cassette covers and upper corners of cassettes, and on the exterior of cassettes.
Apparatus as aforesaid which advantageously permits or blocks visual cueing of bees in one cassette by bees, or work done by bees, in an adjacent cassette or bee passage.
Apparatus as aforesaid permitting cassettes to be stacked, the cover of one to the base of the next, in a horizontally extending column, which column is self-supporting from end to end when its ends are supported.
Apparatus as aforesaid permitting use of a conventional super, with open top and bottom, to support a plurality of side-by-side columns of cassettes, and which permits stacking of a plurality of cassette-filled supers in a hive for honey gathering.
Apparatus as aforesaid permitting full face contact between side-by-side cassettes in adjacent columns in a super, with the bottoms of such cassettes facing in the same direction and without gaps therebetween capable of being filled with propolis or wax which could serve as cues for burr comb.
Apparatus as aforesaid which inhibits building of burr comb at the ends of bee entry slots thereof and at top corners of the cassettes.
Apparatus as aforesaid providing covered cassettes in hives with smooth, essentially crevice-free exterior walls to deter building of burr comb thereon which could cue building of inside burrs.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with apparatus of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.
The objects and purposes of this invention are met by providing apparatus for producing comb honey in a hive and for marketing thereof. Cassettes for filling with comb honey may in broader aspects of the invention be open topped, boxlike sections or, preferably, may each include a boxlike base and a removable cover. The cassettes are stackable in side-by-side horizontal columns in a super. The side-by-side cassettes are constructed so that bees or structure in one cassette can influence production of comb honey in the adjacent cassette, to induce filling with honey to a uniform depth across the full width of each cassette while avoiding superfluous comb construction.
Attention is now directed to the accompanying drawings as briefly discussed immediately below.